Heating device



Dec. 3, 1935. F. R. GEYSER HEATING DEVICE Filed July 29, 1952 IIIIIIIIIII'I I! Patented n... s, 1935 amass muse mmcs I'rankLGeyaanNewYelbEY.

Application July 29, 1982,

This invention relates to a heating device, and particularly to a heating device such as is adapted for the heating of water pipes and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a heating device which is of a flexible or bendable character and adapted to be fastened around a water pipe or the like, and which will include a simple and efilcient means made up as a part thereof bywhich it may be fastened tight upon the pipe.

- A further object is to provide an elongated structure easily bendable longitudinally and including a heating element and constructed to be fastened about the pipe or removed therefrom at will.

A further object is to provide means by which to tighten the device in position upon a pipe after the device has been initially placed in position about the pipe.

A further object is to so construct the device that it will include a minimum of parts, all of simple form, and easily assembled, so that the device may be manufactured at small cost while not imparing its high efliciency in durability and operation.

A further object is to provide against possible creepage and consequent dislocation of its various parts with respect to each other in use.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and 1 applications of principles constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which I have shown merely a preferred form of embodiment of the invention:-

Flg. 1 is a plan view of a heating device constructed in accordance with this invention, the same being shown in a relative open condition, as in the course of manufacture, so asto better disclose the structural arrangement of its parts.

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the article in its completed form.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view substantially upon the plane of line III-III of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a similarly enlarged transverse sectional view substantially upon the plane of line IV--IV of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an electric heatin unit employed.

Fig. 6 is an elevational view illustrating the manner in which the device, in use, is fastened about a pipe. 7

Fig. 'l is a transverse sectional view upon the plane of line VIIV1I. of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. lbut illustrat- 5 ing a slightly modified construction of the heating unit and its arrangement in the device.

Fig. 9 is a view similar to a portion of Fig. 1 but illustrating a tightening device constructed as a part thereof, and 10 Fig. 10 is a transverse sectional view substantially upon the plane of line X-X of Fig. 9 and illustrating the manner in which the tightening device operates to tighten the device in position upon a pipe.

Referring to the drawing for describing in detail the exemplary structure illustrated therein, the reference character L indicates the main or base member of the device, while the reference character G indicates the cover member employed. The heating element is indicated gener. ally by the reference character H.

The base member consists of an elongated strip of soft sheet metal, such for instance as aluminum or soft copper. At opposite longitudinal 2s edges of its central portion it is formed with wings as I and 2, and at opposite ends of its central portion it is formed with tongues 3 and 4. Resting flat upon its central portion is arranged the heating element H and resting fiat upon the heating element is the cover member G. After the heating element and cover member have been positioned then the tongue I is folded over upon the cover member and the wings I and 2 are later folded over upon the cover member and upon 86 the tongue 3 so that the structure presents the appearance as pictured in Fig. 2, the tongue 3 providing a loop or seat 5 within which a ring element 6 is held, and the wings serving to hold the tongue 3 and the cover member firmly in position with the heating elementsandwiched in between.

The engagement of the tongue 3 beneath the wings I and 2 serves to hold the tongue emciently against being swung open when strain is applied 46 upon the ring 6 in use.

The tongue 4 continues beyond the end of the heating element and the whole structure is willciently flexible so that although it may normally be of an approximately fiat form yet it is so flexso ible as to be easily bendable to encircle a pipe or the like, as indicated in Fig. 'l, and the tongue 4 is adapted, when the device has been bent around a pipe, to be drawn tight through the ring 8 and bent over upon itself as at I so astoholdthess device in its position encircling the pipe, as pietured in Figs. 6 and 'l.

Interposed between the heating element H and the surrounding metallic members are suitable insulating sheets 8--8 so that current carrying parts of the heating element may not stand in contact with any of said metallic members, and it will be noted, by reference to Fig. 4, that these insulating sheets 88 are relatively wider than the heating element and that their opposite longitudinal marginal edge portions as 99 are bent over somewhat about the adjacent marginal edges of the heating element by reason of the clamping action of the wings I and 2 so that the heating element is in that way held against any lateral movement within the cavity formed by the surrounding metallic members.

The heating element may take any desired form possessing the requisite flexibility to enable the device to be employed in the manner herein disclosed. It preferably however is of a simple electrical character consisting of one or more strips as Ill-l of insulating material about which is wound a heating wire II, the opposite terminals as l2-|2 of the heating wire consisting of suitable eyelets fixed to the strips Ill-l0 and serving also as attaching means for the ends of insulated terminal conductors i3--| 3 as indicated, said conductors passing out of the interior of the device through suitable openings provided for that purpose as at il-H adjacent to the ring 6 and preferably one at each side of the device. The metallic members overlying the conductors 13 may preferably be punched up as at l5l5 so as to conform to the shape of the conductors and define suitable passages within the device leading to the openings H-ll thereby more eificiently positioning the conductors and preventing likelihood of abrasion of the conductors at the edge comers defined by the openings I4.

If desired the parts l5-l5 may hug frictionally tight about the conductors l3l3 and thereby constitute means efllciently assisting in holding the heating element against creepage out of the opposite end of its receiving cavity in the direction of the tongue 4.

By reference to Fig. 3 it will be seen that the parts i 5 include mating and interlocking bent portions of one of the insulating sheets 8 and of the cover member G and of the tongue 3, which efliciently hold all of the parts against relative dislocation such as might otherwise readily occur incident to the repeated bending and unbending of the device in attaching it to and removing it from operative position upon a pipe.

In the modification Fig. 8 the structure is the same as has already been described in detail except that it illustrates a slight modification of the heating element, said element in Fig. 8 being of a relatively simpler form than that illustrated in the previous figures. Whereas in the previous figures the heating element is shown as including two insulating strips l0, so that the heating wire I I may have its opposite terminals positioned side by side adjacent to the ring 6, the structure in Fig. 8 shows the heating element to consist of only a single insulating strip ill and the opposite terminals of the heating wire to be positioned one at each end of said strip. In order that the insulated conductors i3l3 in this instance may both emerge from the device adjacent to the ring 6 as in the previous figures the structure Fig. 8 suggests that one of said conductors l3 may include a readily flexible portion l6 extending along the length of the device interiorly thereof so as to reach and be connected with the terminal I! which is adjacent to the tongue 4.

In some cases it may be desirable to provide means to insure a tighter grip of the device about 5 a pipe than it is practical to obtain by simply drawing the tongue 4 through the ring 6 and bending over said tongue. In order to obtain a tighter fit of the device about the pipe in this instance it is proposed that the device may be made up to include a simple form of tightening device. An illustration of such a device is shown herein in Figs. 9 and 10 to consist of a simple wedge member I! connected with the base member L at a suitable location by means of a rivet or the like as l8 in such manner that the wedge, while permanently connected with the device, is freely slidable, as through the medium of a slot or the like as l9 provided longitudinally of the wedge for the reception of the rivet I8.

After the device as hereinabove described has been placed in position about a pipe and the tongue 4 bent over as indicated in Figs. 6 and 7 then the wedge I'I may be pushed or driven further in between the. device and the pipe thereby causing the device to be strained in a direction longitudinally of the length of the device and hence drawn up more tightly about the pipe.

A heating device constructed as herein described consists of parts which may be easily and 3 cheaply produced and assembled, and the device maybe quickly and easily attached to a pipe, for instance the water circulating pipe of an automobile engine, and as easily removed after it has served its purpose. It may be attached with equal ease and efliciency to pipes of different diameters, and always the two terminal conductors are at one end of the device so that the other end may be moved into any position desired while the two conductors stand together in a given desired position. Obviously no tools are required either for the attachment or for the removal of this device.

As many changes could be made in this construction without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. A heating device of the class described comprising an elongated member readily flexible so that it may be bent lengthwise about a pipe to be heated and so that it may be readily unbent for removal from said pipe when desired, said elongated member consisting of a strip of flexible sheet metal having infolded longitudinal marginal parts, an elongated flexible cover member extending longitudinally of said strip substantially parallel therewith and held in position by said infolded parts so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, an elongated flexible heat- 5 ing element also extending longitudinally of said strip and being sandwiched between the strip and the cover member so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, electrical insulating means insulating said heating element from said strip and. cover member, interlocking formations cooperative between said cover member and a portion of said strip serving to hold said cover member against displacement, and opposite end portions of said strip having means by which to de- 'an elongated member flexible so ac in hold the device inoperative position that it may be bent lengthwise about a pipe to 2. VA-heating device of the class comprising an elongated member readily flexible so that it may be bent lengthwise about a pipe to be heated and so that it may be readily unbent for removal from said pipe when desired, said elongated member consisting oi a strip 01' flexible sheet metal having iniolded longitudinal margin-.

al parts, an elongated flexible cover member extending longitudinally 01' said strip substantially parallel therewith and held in position by said iniolded parts so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, an elongated flexible electric heating element also extending longitudinally of said strip and being sandwiched between the strip and the cover member so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, interlockingiormations co-operative between said cover member and a portion of said strip serving to hold said cover member and said strip against objectionable relative movement, said interlocking formations being shaped also to provide a curved passage-way arranged to accommodate a conductor leading to said heating element, and opposite end portions of said strip having means by which to detachably hold the device in operative position about the pipe.

3. A heating device oi. the class described comprising an elongated member readily flexible so that it may be bent lengthwise about a pipe to be heated and so that it may be readily unbent for removal from said pipe when desired, an

ably hold the device in operative position upon 7 the. pipe, and a pair of conductors for said heating element extending from said member 'at the end thereof adjacent to said ring.

4. A heating device of the class described combe heated and so that it may be readily unbent for removal from said pipe when desired, said elongated member consisting oi a strip of readily 5 flexible sheet metal having iniolded "integral longitudinal marginal parts, an elongated flexible heating element also extending longitudinally of the strip held by said infolded parts, said strip at one of its ends having an integral portion turned back upon the strip and upon the heating element and being held by said inturned parts so as to form a loop, a ring held by said loop, and said strip at its other end having an integral extension adapted for threading through said ring and readily flexible to bend about a part 0! said ring to detachably hold the device in operative position upon the pipe. I

5. A heating device of the class described comprising an elongated member readily flexible so that it may be bent lengthwise about a pipe to be heated and so that it may be readily unbent for removal from said pipe when desired, said elongated member consisting of a strip of readily flexible sheet metal having iniolded integral longitudinal marginal parts, an elongated flexible cover member extending longitudinally of said strip substantially parallel therewith and held in position by said infolded parts so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, an elongated 80 flexible heating element also extending longitudinally of said strip and being sandwiched between thestrip and the cover member so as to be bendable with said strip about the pipe, said strip at one of its ends having an integral portion 86 turned baclrupon the strip and upon the interposed portion of the heating element so as to form a loop and being connected with the cover member, a ring held by said loop, and said strip at its other end having an integral extension adapted for threading through said ring and readily flexible to bend about a part of said ring to detachably hold the device in operative position upon the pipe.

FRANK R. GEYSER. 

